page_title: Pampas deer
section_title: Threat of extinction
hierarchical_section_title: Pampas deer / Threat of extinction
caption_attribution_description: Español: Venado de campo tomado en una estancia del Departamento de Rocha, Uruguay English: Pampas deer taken at a ranch in Rocha Department, Uruguay Русский: Пампасный олень (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) в департаменте Роча (Уругвай). Türkçe: Uruguay'ın Rocha Departmanı bölgesinde fotoğraflanan Pampa geyiği Українська: Пампасний олень (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) в департаменті Роча, Уругвай Português: Veado-campeiro (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) fotografado no departamento de Rocha, Uruguai. Bosanski: Jelen iz pampe fotografiran na ranču u departmanu Rocha, Urugvaj Čeština: Jelenec pampový, Ozotoceros bezoarticus, ranč v oblasti Rocha Department, Uruguay. Magyar: Pampaszarvas az uruguayi Rocha megyében Italiano: Cervo delle pampas (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) fotografato in un ranch del Dipartimento di Rocha in Uruguay 한국어: 우루과이 로차 주의 한 목장에서 촬영한 팜파스사슴 Nederlands: Een pampahert in het Uruguese departement Rocha.
context_page_description: The Pampas deer is a species of deer that live in the grasslands of South America at low elevations. They are known as venado or gama in Spanish and as veado-campeiro in Portuguese. Their habitat includes water and hills, often with winter drought, and grass that is high enough to cover a standing deer. Many of them live on the Pantanal wetlands, where there are ongoing conservation efforts, and other areas of annual flooding cycles. Human activity has changed much of the original landscape. They are known to live up to 12 years in the wild, longer if captive, but are threatened due to over-hunting and habitat loss. Many people are concerned over this loss, because a healthy deer population means a healthy grassland, and a healthy grassland is home to many species, some also threatened. Many North American birds migrate south to these areas, and if the Pampas deer habitat is lost, they are afraid these bird species will also decline. There are approximately 80,000 Pampas deer total, with the majority of them living in Brazil.
context_section_description: The Pampas deer of southern Argentina once were very abundant but now considered a threatened species by the IUCN.  The IUCN separates the subspecies O. b. celer in southern Argentina as endangered.  The diseases that particularly plague O. b. celer are gut parasites and food and mouth diseases.  Their overall decline is due in part from hunting and poaching, but also from habitat loss due to agriculture, diseases from domesticated and feral livestock, competition from more recently introduced wildlife, and general over-exploitation. There is less than 1% of their natural habitat left that was present in 1900. The deer in Argentina and Uruguay have no natural predators. They used to be the prey of cougars and jaguars. Those in Brazil still have cougars to fear. Some areas of population loss are easily tracked to poaching because of the few number of deer in an area. In the mid-1970s, 10 individuals out of a group of 16 located in Punta Medanos were killed by poachers.  The rest were wiped out by extensive human activity.  Lack of funding and technology have made it difficult for biologists to track and help the deer population, but donations and grants from organizations and universities in the United States have helped immensely with the situation.  In 1975, there were less than 100 of subspecies O. b. celer, but by 1980 there were 400.  The population has been continuing to increase, although not at that high of a rate.  Some of the discrepancy is due to the fact that later they found groups they did not know existed.
  Local people often blame the deer for outbreaks of disease in their livestock, particularly the disease brucellosis in cattle.  In one instance, the Uruguayan government was going to kill some of their Pampas deer population.  Research by field veterinarians had shown that Pampas deer rarely carry the disease, so the government gave them time to assess deer health.  Funded by the Disney Conservation Fund, they were able to prove that the deer pose no threat of spreading disease to livestock.
  Trade for commercial purposes is banned.  They are legally protected in Argentina, and they have a private and federal reserve set aside for the deer.  In some areas, strictly controlling poaching is all that was necessary to quickly increase the population size.  Increasing public knowledge and controlling road building has also helped.  They reproduce well in captivity, and are sometimes reintroduced into the wild.
  In 2006, Global Positioning Systems were placed on 19 Pampas deer, although 8 of those did not record data.  The individuals were monitored from between 4–18 days for researches to collect data on their movements, to better understand how to help them.
caption: Pampas deer taken in a ranch in Rocha Department, Uruguay (2015)
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